Note: There were so many actors who made it on versions of my top 5 favorite actors that I could hardly leave mentioning any of them. But this was a great year for lead actors, who always get the best roles in Korean dramas. Ask me again another day and I might change the order and the people in my top 5. But today, these are my five favorites this year.

Finalists:

Ji Hyun Woo is intelligent, kind, special, and just plain adorable in Queen In Hyun’s Man. Kim Myung Min delivers a typically splendid performance as a perfectionist and narcissistic drama producer in The King of Dramas. Lee Jun Ki is one half of the most adorable couple on TV this past year with his intelligent and totally loveable magistrate in Arang and the Magistrate. Gong Yoo’s heartbreaking and hilarious performance is the best and possibly only good thing about Big. Kim Soo Hyun delivers a deeply felt and moving take on a King hung up on his first love in The Moon that Embraces the Sun. Sung Joon is naturalistic but super charismatic as the lead singer in Shut Up! Flower Boy Band.

Hi there! That took forever to start writing again. But that’s what happens when life takes over. When I say life, I mean schoolwork. Three writing-heavy classes including one giant 24-page research paper, a language class that takes a lot of time, and Accounting makes for a very busy schedule. On top of that, I had to make time for friends and other responsibilities that drove me nuts all semester long. but here I am afresh and glad to know that my schedule this semester isn’t as heavy as last semester’s nor is it full of classes that should take like 90% of my time. I am more than hopeful this year that I’ll make time for this blog since I do enjoy writing about what I love.

Speaking of which, I’ve been so out of touch with Korean music that it’s quite embarrassing how little I know about them now. Outside of favorites like BIGBANG (in the form of G-Dragon) and TVXQ (“Catch Me” is sooo good), I haven’t paid attention to any new music since this summer. However, one thing that I did keep in touch with, and gladly too, are the Korean dramas this fall. Therefore, I am more than prepared to make my list of favorite Korean dramas in 2012. Since the Oscar nominations also came out today, I am in the mood for list-making! A favorite tradition of mine regardless of whether or not I write a blog. So I’ll be sharing those by the end of today!

Happy New Year!

Clarence

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Recently, I’ve had a sudden interest in watching Korean cable dramas because I found that they bear some semblance to the cable dramas that air here in the States. While strict laws set by the FCC have limited the stories that broadcast TV shows can make, they don’t apply to cable dramas where nudity is much more common and violence is much more common. While nothing like that has ever appeared on cable dramas in Korea (not that I’m an expert or anything), the quality of the storytelling is markedly better in cable shows. Also, they’re easier to digest because their running time is at least 15 minutes shorter than normal broadcast dramas (trust me, those 15 mins take up a lot of time!). As a result, the writing is usually tighter and there are less filler episodes. This year alone, I’ve watched three cable dramas that rank among my favorite of the year: Queen In Hyun’s Man, Shut Up Flower Boy Band, and I Need Romance 2. Last week, the new TVN drama Reply 1997 or Answer Me 1997 made its debut and I have to say I have very high hopes for this drama.

After a stellar year atop everyone’s list of favorite artists in 2011, Beast comes back with their fifth mini-album, “Midnight Sun.” Because I truly loved their last album, I have very high expectations for their next. Inevitably, when they’ve set such a high standard for themselves, people would want to hear more and would anticipate an album that is as good as their previous one (Gee I wonder how Adele will follow up her album, that’s got to be a tall order).

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*I’ve been meaning to post this since I finished the bulk of it the day of the series finale. But unfortunately, my timing has never been my strong suit so here’s a long-ish essay on that series*

Duty. It’s a word that can mean different things depending on the context and the speaker. What stays the same, however, is that duty may represent the values of the speaker. That is not to say that people who work for the government or for the military have set their duties to honor or uphold either institution. Indeed, history has shown that people often misrepresent their true motives with the duties that they publicly espouse and follow. But despite that, the duties that people say they have are abstract values that determine their overall personhood and identities.

The question of personhood—how we identify ourselves—and the notion of duty are the two most important themes explored in the drama The King 2 Hearts. The drama, set in a modern-day fictional Korea where the country is led by a monarchy, engages the audience with difficult concepts not as readily accessible as duty, paraplegia, and identity as well as concepts that strike close to home for many viewers like nationality and Korean unification. All of these ideas are weaved into a storyline that, the poster and title of the series indicate, that centers on the romance between a hapless South Korean prince and a North Korean military girl. Lee Seung Gi plays the South Korean prince Lee Jae Ha who then becomes king while Ha Ji Won plays the North Korean soldier Kim Hang Ah.

Alrighty our beloved DramaPop readers, Clarence and I decided to go out on a new endeavor a create a Twitter account. Yay!!! Neither of us fully understand the inner workings of this fantastical land of Twitter, but we would love your support as we try to figure it out!